{"id":12584,"date":"2017-10-25T11:38:51","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T17:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/2022\/05\/too-cute-for-tiny-tale-tellers-some-thoughts-on-translating-series-201-with-luisa-valenzuela-by-grady-c-wray\/"},"modified":"2023-06-07T07:57:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T13:57:17","slug":"too-cute-for-tiny-tale-tellers-some-thoughts-on-translating-series-201-with-luisa-valenzuela-by-grady-c-wray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/2017\/10\/too-cute-for-tiny-tale-tellers-some-thoughts-on-translating-series-201-with-luisa-valenzuela-by-grady-c-wray\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Too Cute for Tiny Tale Tellers: Some Thoughts on Translating Series 201 with Luisa Valenzuela&#8221; by Grady C. Wray"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'}<br \/>p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15.0px}<br \/>p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'}<br \/>span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}<br \/><\/style>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\"><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'}<br \/>p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 12.0px}<br \/>p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'}<br \/>span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}<br \/><\/style>\n<p>I was fortunate to translate this series of flash fiction with the guidance of Luisa Valenzuela. During several meetings in Buenos Aires in the chilly months of June and July of 2017, we discussed several of the different options for a worthy translation of this microfiction. At times Valenzuela was more concerned that I had understood the context of the tales, rather than specific words or phrases. I appreciated her help with contextualization and her flexibility with certain terms. The majority of the tales in the series are based on real events, and so, as Valenzuela and I explored different nuances in English, she recollected how each story had unfolded, and she clarified her original intentions. Of the seven microtales, only five have appeared in press. \u201cIntroducci\u00f3n\u201d \/ \u201cIntroduction,\u201d \u201cExplicaci\u00f3n racional de un hecho ins\u00f3lito\u201d \/ \u201cA Rational Explanation for an Unbelievable Fact,\u201d \u201cLlamada\u201d \/ \u201cThe Call,\u201d \u201cFiltraciones\u201d \/ \u201cLeaks,\u201d and \u201cExit\u201d appear in\u00a0<i>Juego de villanos\u00a0<\/i>(Valenzuela, Thule Ediciones, 2008, pp. 113-116). \u201cExplicaci\u00f3n racional de un hecho ins\u00f3lito\u201d \/ \u201cA Rational Explanation for an Unbelievable Fact\u201d was again published with a different title (\u201cEsclarecimiento\u201d) in\u00a0<i>201<\/i>\u00a0(Ediciones Altazor, 2013, p. 104), an anthology of microfiction compiled by David Roas and Jos\u00e9 Donayre in which all ninety-nine microtexts by ninety-nine different authors allude to rooms with the number 201.<\/p>\n<p>When I first read Valenzuela\u2019s series I did not notice any major difficulties that I would confront when translating, but as always, certain obstacles were waiting between the words and between the languages. Some phrases caused me to stretch to accommodate an interesting English. However, I took some of the obstacles too seriously and tried to incorporate them even though, in the final translation, I omitted them because my efforts detracted from the singleness of effect for which I aimed throughout the process.<\/p>\n<p>I followed the guiding principle of wasting no words, and because they are \u201ctiny tales,\u201d I felt brevity was best. I did not want to detract from the singleness of effect of a good short tale but rather to enhance this effect. Every word was important, and I aimed to lead the reader to the end without delay. Additionally, because I wanted the stories to reflect this short accented style, I decided to use as much alliteration as possible to accentuate the reading experience. I \u201cfound\u201d this alliterative style more in the English than in the original. Alliteration adds a touch of staccato-like rhythm to this genre that focuses on quick wit and short snippets. It accentuates a clear rhythm and leads to a final jolt similar to clanging symbols at the end of a short musical phrase. I wanted a type of \u201crat-a-tat-tat\u2026 clang\u201d for each one of the tales. To continue with this staccato effect, I shortened sentences to quicken the pace of the reading and punctuated in a more concise style. I may have gone too far, or been \u201ctoo cute\u201d with the alliterations, but Valenzuela seemed to appreciate the effect, and in fact, she provided some interesting alliterations.<\/p>\n<p>The title itself proved more difficult than I had assumed: The Spanish is \u201cSerie 201.\u201d Some choices were: \u201cThe 201 Series,\u201d \u201cSeries 201,\u201d or I wondered if I should add more clarification and call it \u201cThe Room 201 Series,\u201d giving more information to the readers. However, because Valenzuela kept it short, so did I, and I chose \u201cSeries 201.\u201d I like that it leaves things rather open, much like the series itself. The title, both in Spanish and English, suggests flexible meanings.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>1. \u201cIntroducci\u00f3n\u201d \/ \u201cIntroduction\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An early hurdle was \u201cTiny Tale Tellers\u201d vs. \u201cMicrostory Tellers\u201d vs. \u201cMicrotale Tellers\u201d vs. \u201cMicrofiction Writers\u201d vs. \u201cFast Fiction Writers\u201d vs. \u201cFlash Fiction Writers.\u201d My first attempt at \u201cmicrorrelatistas\u201d yielded \u201ctiny tale tellers.\u201d Some could argue that too much alliteration, \u201ct-t-t,\u201d again, is \u201ctoo cute\u201d or too trite for this task; however I decided to leave it and see what Valenzuela thought. Even before I had shared the written paragraphs with Valenzuela, I mentioned that I might use \u201ctiny tale tellers\u201d to express \u201cmicrorrelatistas\u201d in English. She quickly pointed out that she was referring to microfiction <i>writers<\/i> and not only to those who <i>tell<\/i> tiny tales. She liked the idea of the alliteration of tiny tales, but felt that \u201cteller\u201d did not best reflect \u201crelatista\u201d as writer. In Spanish, a \u201crelatista\u201d or \u201ctale writer\u201d (similar to \u201cnovelista\u201d = \u201cnovelist\u201d and \u201ccuentista\u201d = \u201cshort story writer\u201d) is not the same as a \u201crelator\u201d who is a narrator, or teller, only. So, defeated, I went back to the \u201cless cute\u201d microfiction writer, which is absolutely correct, but it didn\u2019t have the punch I wanted at the beginning. On a subsequent meeting with Valenzuela, however, she suggested \u201cflash fiction writers\u201d in order to maintain an alliteration and also reflect that the people responsible for these texts are writers. Luckily some alliteration returned, and keeping alliteration alive, I went out of my way, perhaps too far (again being too cute), to maintain Valenzuela\u2019s reference to Coleridge\u2019s \u201cfrase feliz,\u201d which I could have easily left as \u201chappy phrase,\u201d maybe \u201cfamous phrase.\u201d But I chose \u201ccurious quote\u201d to hit the hard \u201cc\u201d sound of Coleridge one more time.<\/p>\n<p>My initial attempt at the last paragraph of the introduction was, \u201cI opened myself up to the mystery proposed by David\u2019s very tiny tale with a somewhat ironic smile, like someone who\u2019s watching a game, without even suspecting it\u2019s a game: It was a net in which, like David, I would very soon find myself trapped.\u201d When Valenzuela read this she was quick to point out that she wanted to stress that this was \u201cno game at all.\u201d She also astutely offered \u201centangled\u201d instead of \u201ctrapped\u201d as the final adjective to describe how one is caught in a \u201cnet.\u201d The final version is: \u201cI opened myself up to the mystery proposed by David\u2019s very tiny tale with a somewhat ironic smile, like someone who was watching a game and did not even suspect that <i>it was no game at all<\/i>: It was a net in which, like David, I would very soon find myself <i>entangled<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>2. \u201cExplicaci\u00f3n racional de un hecho ins\u00f3lito\u201d \/ \u201cA Rational Explanation for an Unbelievable Fact\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The alliterations I found in this tiny tale surfaced in the following ways. \u201cReincidencia\u201d is a great word in Spanish and offers a hint of second or third \u201coffense\u201d with a criminalistic tone such as recidivism. I could have used recurrence or reoccurrence; however, I avoided the original word completely and added more alliteration: \u201cafter the third terrifying time.\u201d When faced with \u201cultra secret solution\u201d vs. \u201csuper secret solution,\u201d again, alliteration won. Valenzuela helped with wasting no words when she suggested \u201cinadvertently\u201d for \u201cknowing absolutely nothing\u201d to translate the phrase \u201csin que se note en absoluto.\u201d Finally, a nice rhyme appeared at the end of this tale: Head and bed (\u201c\u2026they courteously greet each other with a slight nod of the <i>head<\/i>, without knowing that they\u2019ve all slept together in the same <i>bed<\/i>.\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>The tale also yielded the term \u201cmilhojas\u201d and exemplifies how something was lost in translation. Milhojas is a delicious multilayered word that can mean a multilayered puff pastry dessert or, literally, \u201ca thousand pages\/sheets of paper\u201d upon which a thousand tales could be written. Due to its various meanings expressed in Spanish with only one word (what a fine example of not wasting words), it was better to let this one get lost, and merely translate it as \u201cmultilayered.\u201d However, I could not resist the temptation to try to include it in English. I risked too many words that did not lead to a strong conclusion and added a parenthetical phrase to try to capture the multiple meanings of milhojas: \u201c(the luscious layers of a delicious millefeuille puff pastry come to mind).\u201d I chose the French word \u201cmillefeuille,\u201d which does exist in English culinary manuals and more closely relates to the Spanish to suggest the many different layers, pages, \u201chojas,\u201d or stories that could possibly happen in room 201. I could have used the Italian \u201cmille foglie\u201d because the tale takes place in Italy. Some possible parenthetical options were:<\/p>\n<p>a. \u201cthat could be called \u2018multiuse\u2019 or even better millefeuille or \u2018multilayer.\u2019\u201d<br \/>\nb. \u201cthat puff pastry that has uncountable layers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After all my clever (cute) tries, Valenzuela wrote \u201cno necesitamos aclaraci\u00f3n,\u201d and thus, my parenthetical addition of \u201cthe luscious layers of a delicious millefeuille puff pastry come to mind\u201d got lost, and I chose simply \u201cmultilayered.\u201d If I had added the parenthetical phrase, it would have distracted from the singleness of effect and added needless words.<\/p>\n<p>The wonderful use of \u201crezar\u201d (to pray) in Spanish to mean what is written on the room key is, alas, also lost, and I replaced it with the unappealing \u201csays\u201d: \u201cla llave magn\u00e9tica en un sobrecito que reza \u2018201\u2019\u201d translates to \u201cthe magnetic keycard in a little envelope that says \u2018201.\u2019\u201d Lost in translation\u2026<\/p>\n<p>My non-gender-specific bias did not want to make the tourist in this tale a male, but Valenzuela does use the masculine pronoun to refer to him, so I chose to leave it as it was in the original, which brings us to another difficulty. How should one express \u201cen pareja\u201d in English? Unfortunately, English does not have a wealth of synonyms to express \u201cboyfriend,\u201d \u201cgirlfriend,\u201d \u201ccompanion,\u201d or \u201cpartner,\u201d and there are many hidden implications in these words. Spanish has the complicated \u201cnovio\/a\u201d that can stand for boy\/girlfriend, fianc\u00e9\/e, or bride\/bridegroom, but in recent years other terms have surfaced to avoid this rather dated expression. \u201cPareja\u201d tends to mean someone with whom one lives and has a committed relationship, but no marriage. \u201cAmigovio\/a\u201d can be closer to \u201cfriends with benefits.\u201d However, when I first read \u201cpareja\u201d in this microtale I felt that this could represent a rather non-committed relationship for whomever may be travelling. Additionally, in English it has been used to suggest a same sex commitment, not to mention the \u201cbusiness partner\u201d possibility. Thus, my first attempt avoided a strict translation: \u201cThe unsuspecting tourist arrives, alone or<i> with someone<\/i>, and checks in as expected.\u201d When I expressed my concern about this term, Valenzuela felt that partner was indeed the best translation; therefore I used: \u201cThe unsuspecting tourist arrives, either alone or <i>with a partner<\/i>, and checks in as expected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>3. \u201cLlamada\u201d \/ \u201cThe Call\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The only doubt I had in this short paragraph was the use of \u201cpromiscuous.\u201d Promiscuous is somewhat more sexually loaded in English than in Spanish, but given Valenzuela\u2019s style in other texts, I didn\u2019t think it was too daring to leave the sexual tone.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>4. \u201cFiltraciones\u201d \/ \u201cLeaks\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An interesting typo in the original gave both Valenzuela and me the idea of leaving a word incomplete at the end of this tale. When I first read \u201cFiltraciones\u201d \/ \u201cLeaks,\u201d the word \u201cescribir\u201d had not been finished: \u201cest\u00e1 empezando a esfumarse el papel en el cual <i>escrib<\/i>.\u201d Because the tale mentioned the disappearance of the paper, I thought perhaps Valenzuela was playing with her readers; so I left a word unfinished in the translation. She noted that it was not a typo, but she so enjoyed the unintentional trick, that she decided to leave it as it was in the original and suggested \u201cdisapp\u201d for \u201cdisappear\u201d in the translation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>5. \u201cExit\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of all the microtales in this series, Valenzuela and I most discussed \u201cExit\u201d (the title in both Spanish and English). I had misread\/misunderstood (thus mistranslated) a few sentences, and it was important for her to clarify and tighten up this entirely fictitious tale. It all started with how to translate \u201cmuchacho,\u201d the catch-all term for boy, young man, guy, or kid. Valenzuela wanted to make sure that I did not translate the term as \u201cboy\u201d: \u201cno es un boy, es un muchacho grande,\u201d she told me. I had originally translated it as \u201ckid\u201d and used \u201cboy\u201d when the term was repeated later: \u201cUnaware of the big secret about rooms 201, the poor <i>kid<\/i> began to worry.\u201d Her first suggestion was \u201cchap.\u201d Indeed, \u201cchap\u201d does capture a somewhat generic term for \u201cman,\u201d but it adds a hint of British flavor to the story that I felt was unnecessary because the story takes place in Italy. I had already decided to leave the nickname for the grandfather as \u201cNonno,\u201d the Italian term for \u201cGramps,\u201d so I felt that \u201cfellow\u201d might be even more generic without too much regional emphasis. Valenzuela was also keen on \u201clad,\u201d but I thought it leaned more toward \u201cboy\u201d and still maintained a British regionalism. Other terms that could have worked are: \u201cguy\u201d and \u201cyoung man.\u201d Finally I settled on \u201cfellow.\u201d A similar trickiness with translation of terms like \u201cmuchacho\/a,\u201d \u201cchico\/a,\u201d can transfer to the term \u201cviejo\/a,\u201d and some readers of both the Spanish and the English may wonder why I chose to translate \u201cchismes de vieja\u201d as \u201csimple gossip.\u201d At first, I was very proud of my translation of \u201cold-lady gossip.\u201d However, Valenzuela did not like \u201cold-lady,\u201d and we decided to go with \u201csimple gossip\u201d instead.<\/p>\n<p>A wheel chair is key to setting the scene for this tale. The original Spanish states: \u201cLa [silla de ruedas] alquil\u00f3 [el muchacho] por veinticuatro horas, alegando que deb\u00edan mudar a su abuelo al geri\u00e1trico. Solo veinticuatro horas. Total, si hay retorno la devuelve ma\u00f1ana mismo, y si no hay\u2026.\u201d My first attempt: \u201cHe rented it for twenty-four hours guessing that they\u2019d have to move his grandfather to the old-folks home. Only twenty-four hours. And anyway, if they come back, he\u2019ll return it tomorrow, and if not, there\u2019s no\u2026.\u201d Valenzuela was essential for improving these sentences to: \u201cHe rented it for twenty-four hours <i>claiming<\/i> that he only needed it to move his grandfather to the old-folks home. Only twenty-four hours. Anyway, <i>if he\u2019s able to bring his grandfather back<\/i>, he\u2019ll return it tomorrow, and if not\u2026.\u201d I had originally thought that \u201csi hay retorno\u201d was \u201cif they come back\u201d (I had taken some license here already), but Valenzuela\u2019s clarification, \u201cif he\u2019s able to bring his grandfather back,\u201d helped prepare the reader for the tale\u2019s ending.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInquietud\u201d suggests many possibilities in English: curiosity, restlessness, and anxiety, to name a few. However, this \u201cinquietud\u201d gnaws or eats at the character (\u201ccorroe\u201d in Spanish). I chose to make a bold change to \u201ceating him alive.\u201d I considered \u201cgnawing at him,\u201d which would have been a wonderful translation too. The original was, \u201cAhora est\u00e1 de regreso en la misma habitaci\u00f3n 201 donde ha pasado los \u00faltimos tres d\u00edas junto con su abuelo, porque la inquietud lo corroe.\u201d Valenzuela helped to divide the long sentence into two separate shorter ones for a final translation of: \u201cNow, he was back in the same room 201 where he had spent the last three days with his grandfather. Anxiety was eating him alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My misreading\/mistranslation occurred when I translated, \u201cEst\u00e1 el ba\u00f1o, id\u00e9ntico, inamovible, con el inodoro muy alto, las barandas para sostenerse, la ducha sin reborde\u2026\u201d as \u201cHe\u2019s in the bathroom, the identical bathroom, the stationary bathroom with the raised toilet, the grab bars to steady oneself, the shower without an edge\u2026.\u201d Luckily Valenzuela caught my error of \u201cHe\u2019s in the bathroom\u201d and I changed it to the correct, \u201cThe bathroom is there.\u201d She also suggested \u201cundisturbed\u201d instead of \u201cstationary\u201d for a final translation of: \u201cThe bathroom is there, identical, undisturbed, with the elevated toilet, the grab bars to steady oneself, the shower without an edge\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeposiciones\u201d and \u201cdeyecciones\u201d were challenging. \u201cDepositions\u201d in English typically refers to a legal testimony or removal from power or overthrow and would not suggest the feces that Valenzuela implies. Excrement, a bowel movement, intestinal evacuations, eliminations, and expulsions are possible choices, but I felt they were either too bold or not suggestive enough. I toyed with the idea of \u201cdeposit,\u201d as in: \u201cDid you leave a deposit (ha ha ha) after you went to the restroom?\u201d When Valenzuela and I discussed this choice, she was more than eager to use \u201cfeces\u201d for one of the translations. I remained hesitant because I still felt that it was too \u201cmedical\u201d or strong for a translation of either \u201cdeyecciones\u201d or \u201cdeposiciones,\u201d so I asked which was most strong in Spanish and Valenzuela felt that \u201cdeposiciones\u201d carried a more unpleasant tone in Argentine Spanish than \u201cdeyecciones.\u201d Thus, I decided to first use \u201cdefecations\u201d for \u201cdeposiciones\u201d and \u201cexcretions\u201d for \u201cdeyecciones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReclamar\u201d in Spanish is always difficult for me because its meaning can significantly change depending on context. In this tale, Valenzuela writes: \u201cvolver para reclam\u00e1rselo\u201d (return to turn him in \/ make a claim against him \/ file a report \/ lodge a complaint \/ complain about it). I chose \u201creturn to turn him in,\u201d but Valenzuela suggested \u201crecriminate him.\u201d We finally agreed on \u201creprimand him,\u201d and I greatly appreciated the clarification. Some other possibilities were \u201cget on to him,\u201d \u201cgripe at him,\u201d or \u201cgripe him out.\u201d All of which I found too colloquial.<\/p>\n<p>In keeping with the desire to eliminate needless words Valenzuela and I changed the following original Spanish, \u201ccerrar\u00e1 la puerta y buscar\u00e1 la mejor manera de hacer girar con unas pinzas esas llaves que solo funcionan del lado de la habitaci\u00f3n,\u201d to \u201cclose the door and look for a way to turn the keys from the other side of the door with some tweezers.\u201d My first attempt, \u201cclose the door, and look for the best way to turn the keys with some tweezers because they were on the outside of the door, facing the room,\u201d seemed too difficult to follow and wasted too many words.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>6. \u201cRepresalia de la 201\u201d \/ \u201cRetaliation from Room 201\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This tale is based on one of Valenzuela\u2019s lived experiences, and upon re-reading it, she told me of the intense food poisoning episode she experienced in Viet-Nam and how the next day she was scheduled and obligated to take a river cruise in which they gave her her own cabin in the boat so she could lie down and recover.<\/p>\n<p>A wonderful alliteration that got lost in translation was \u201cMaravillosa maldici\u00f3n.\u201d Maybe a big change could have been \u201ccruel curse,\u201d but at the end of this tail, I used \u201ccruel\u201d to modify vengeance. Valenzuela suggested \u201ccurious curse,\u201d and I was thrilled. We had only used \u201ccurious\u201d one other time in the series: the \u201ccurious quote\u201d from Coleridge in the introduction. I felt that \u201ccurious curse\u201d was a nice echo from the introduction. To return to the use of \u201ccruel\u201d in \u201cQu\u00e9 cruel venganza,\u201d I listed several choices for Valenzuela: \u201cWhat (a) cruel vengeance,\u201d \u201cWhat a cruel way to get back at me,\u201d and \u201cPayback is a bitch.\u201d She chose, \u201cWhat a cruel vengeance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>7. \u201cNunca m\u00e1s\u201d \/ \u201cNever Again\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some of the slight \u201cgains\u201d in translation in this last tiny tale included words in English that do not have easy equivalents in Spanish. \u201cAcompa\u00f1ar\u201d can easily translate as \u201cto accompany,\u201d but \u201cme acompa\u00f1aba escaleras arriba\u201d yielded \u201cushered me up the stairs.\u201d \u201cTo usher\u201d does not have a clear equivalent in Spanish. It could be \u201cacompa\u00f1ar\u201d \/ \u201cguiar\u201d \/ \u201cllevar\u201d \/ \u201cescoltar\u201d \/ \u201cacomodar,\u201d but it works nicely here instead of \u201caccompanied.\u201d Additionally, Valenzuela clarified \u201ctapiadas\u201d in the phrase: \u201cpor dentro ten\u00eda todas las ventanas tapiadas.\u201d My first attempt was: \u201cbut on the inside, all of the windows were covered.\u201d However, with Valenzuela\u2019s memory of a lived experience, the final translation reads as follows: \u201cbut on the inside, all of the windows were boarded up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the final two sentences of the series would cause much grief: The original Spanish reads: \u201c\u00bfPor qu\u00e9 me sorprendi\u00f3 comprobar que se trataba de la 201?<\/p>\n<p>Me sorprendi\u00f3, s\u00ed, pero supe agradecer mi buen instinto.\u201d Here, Valenzuela even decided to change the original to \u201c\u00bfMe sorprendi\u00f3 comprobar que se trataba de la 201? No, no me sorprendi\u00f3, pero supe agradecer mi buen instinto.\u201d While \u201cDid it surprise me to see it was 201?\u201d is acceptable, \u201ccomprobar\u201d can be problematic (confirm \/ verify \/ realize \/ check). I chose \u201csee\u201d because the character is just passing by and glances to see that it was room 201. There does not seem to be a clear desire to \u201cconfirm,\u201d but yet to \u201cnotice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, no me sorprendi\u00f3, pero supe agradecer mi buen instinto\u201d caused many more possibilities. A close translation would be: \u201cNo, it didn\u2019t surprise me, but I knew \/ found out \/ learned to thank my good instinct.\u201d Since the preterite of saber (supe) can mean to \u201cfind out\u201d or \u201clearn\u201d something for the first time, \u201cI learned to thank my good instinct\u201d could easily work. Some other possibilities are:<\/p>\n<p>a. \u201cI learned I needed to thank my good instincts.\u201d<br \/>\nb. \u201cI learned I had to give thanks for my good instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But if we search the mind of English speakers a bit more, we might come up with the following:<\/p>\n<p>a. \u201cI didn\u2019t forget to thank my good instincts.\u201d<br \/>\nb. \u201cI gave thanks to my good instincts.\u201d<br \/>\nc. \u201cI did remember to thank my good instincts.\u201d<br \/>\nd. \u201cI learned to thank my good instincts.\u201d<br \/>\nf. \u201cI found out that I needed to thank my good instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, let\u2019s reconsider \u201cgood instincts\u201d or \u201cbuen instinto.\u201d Given what happened in the previous tiny tale, \u201cRepresalia de la 201\u201d \/ \u201cRetaliation from Room 201,\u201d in which the narrator spent the night in convulsions from intestinal problems due to what seems to be a food poisoning episode, the idea of a \u201cgood instinct\u201d as a \u201cgut instinct\u201d comes to mind. This leads to \u201ctrusting one\u2019s gut instincts\u201d or simply \u201ctrusting one\u2019s gut.\u201d Therefore more options are:<\/p>\n<p>a. \u201cI was thankful\/grateful I trusted my gut instincts.\u201d<br \/>\nb. \u201cI didn\u2019t forget to trust my gut feelings.\u201d<br \/>\nc. \u201cI was thankful\/grateful I trusted my gut.\u201d<br \/>\nd. \u201cI learned to thank my gut instincts.\u201d<br \/>\ne. \u201cI found out I needed to trust my gut.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s return once again to native English speakers who may not be \u201cthankful\u201d or \u201cgrateful\u201d but rather \u201cglad,\u201d which continues to add a final alliteration. Therefore I narrowed it down to three choices:<\/p>\n<p>a. \u201cI was grateful I trusted my gut.\u201d (This still maintains an echo of \u201cagradecer\u201d for \u201cto be thankful\/grateful.\u201d<br \/>\nb. \u201cI was glad I trusted my gut.\u201d (Both \u201ca.\u201d and \u201cb.\u201d allow for the alliteration of the \u201cg\u201d in the last line (glad\/grateful and gut).<br \/>\nc. \u201cI learned to trust my gut.\u201d<br \/>\nd. \u201cI learned to thank my gut instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finally, in keeping things concise and maintaining the meaning of \u201cagradecer,\u201d I chose:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was grateful I trusted my gut.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just as I am grateful to Luisa Valenzuela for helping me to trust my gut in this series of tiny tales of flash fiction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Grady C. Wray<br \/>\nUniversity of Oklahoma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I first read Valenzuela\u2019s series I did not notice any major difficulties that I would confront when translating, but as always, certain obstacles were waiting between the words and between the languages. Some phrases caused me to stretch to accommodate an interesting English. However, I took some of the obstacles too seriously and tried to incorporate them even though, in the final translation, I omitted them because my efforts detracted from the singleness of effect for which I aimed throughout the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4461,2954],"genre":[2019],"pretext":[689],"section":[2372],"translator":[],"lal_author":[3034],"class_list":["post-12584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-numero-4","tag-translation-es","genre-essay-es","pretext-essay","section-dossier-five-women-writers-in-translation-es-2","lal_author-grady-c-wray-es"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12584"},{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=12584"},{"taxonomy":"pretext","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pretext?post=12584"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=12584"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=12584"},{"taxonomy":"lal_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lal_author?post=12584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}